Usually, when I think of Beverly Hills, I don’t think “green”. Rodeo Drive? Yes. Mansions with manicured lawns? Yes. Brenda, Brandon, and the rest of the 90210 gang? Unfortunately, yes. But none of the usual Beverly Hills connotations point me towards sustainability or a concern for the environment.

So perhaps it’s a sign of the times that a city so strongly associated with money and consumerism should be the site for a two-day event focused on practical solutions for everyone to decrease their impact on the planet.

Green Days in Beverly Hills, an International Environmental Expo and Sustainability Conference, will be held Saturday, June 23rd and Sunday, June 24th at Beverly Hills High School. Sponsored by the European Business Council and the City of Beverly Hills, it features both a product Expo, as well as speakers in a Conference format.

The Expo, which runs both days, will showcase green products and systems that address the building and energy challenges experienced by Southern California residents. Panels, workshops and presentations will focus on three categories: Home, Work, and Transportation.

In addition, the Conference portion features several speakers and a panel of experts discussing green building, renewable energy, transportation, and water conservation.

Conference keynote speakers include:

• Stanford Ovshinsky, Inventor: Founder, Chief Scientist and Technologist of Energy Conversion Devices, Inc. (ECD Ovonics) and Inventor of Ovonic solar cells. Named "Hero for the Planet" by Time Magazine 1999.
• Edward Mazria, internationally recognized Architect and Educator: Author of The Passive Solar Energy Book, and Founder and Policy Director of Architecture 2030
• L. Hunter Lovins, Economic Consultant, Educator, Author: President and Founder, Natural Capitalism Solutions and co-author of Natural Capitalism. Founder of the Rocky Mountain Institute. Named "Hero for the Planet" by Time magazine, 2000.
• D. Neel Bradham: As Vice President of Business Development for Interface, Inc., provices management and oversight of Interface's global sustainable strategy group and new venture, InterfaceRAISE

Organizers scheduled the event to occur concurrently with the US Conference of Mayors, also held in Los Angeles this weekend. With much attention focused on the Mayors’ Conference, it’s the perfect time for cities to spotlight environmental issues. Perhaps Green Days might even help to change everyone’s perception of Beverly Hills, and show that the city is about more than just the Benjamins.

Photo credit: MyGo-PasadenaInspired by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s new GREEN LA climate change action plan, announced earlier this month, I’ve decided to take a look a big element of life in LA: transportation. As any Angeleno knows, ridiculous traffic and poor air quality have a huge impact on our overall quality of life here in So Cal (Mountains? I don’t see any mountains!) But what’s included in the plan, and what are our options in the meantime?

In the works
According to Nancy Sutley, Deputy Mayor for Energy and the Environment for the City of Los Angeles, “LA hasn’t spent a dime in 15 years on expanding freeway capacity.” Really? I hadn’t noticed.

Fortunately, the city has worked to expand and green public transportation, used by over a million people every day. Working towards the elimination of diesel buses by next year, the MTA sports the largest fleet of natural gas buses in North America. Even better, expansions to the light rail and subway system are also planned, including the unlikely Subway to the Sea project that entails expanding the Metro Red line underneath Wilshire Blvd. 15 miles to the ocean. The project would take 15 years at a cost of $5 billion, but would provide public transport for one of the most heavily traveled routes in the city. If it happens.

So…what do we do in the meantime?
Well, let’s start with the obvious: the greenest, and often the fastest, option for short trips is to walk or ride a bike. For longer trips, use public transportation for the majority of your travel. Trains don’t get stuck in traffic, and buses can take the carpool lanes. Plus, despite the recent rate hike, it’s still pretty cheap compared to a car.

For trips to and from the airport, give FlyAway a try. The bus service connects LAX to downtown’s Union Station and Van Nuys. Either route costs just $3 each way, and you can complete airline check-in of your baggage and get your boarding pass before arriving at LAX. This service is also set to be expanded as part of the Mayor’s plan, so keep an eye out for new routes.

If you live in the Valley and already use the Gold Line for a downtown commute, check out MyGo-Pasadena. A project of transportation non-profit WestStart-CALSTART, MyGo-Pasadena provides significant rebates towards the purchase of a two-wheel electric vehicle for use in getting to the station. Since the bikes are powered, you won’t be all sweaty when you get to work, but you can peddle home if you want the exercise. Besides, with this draught expected to stay awhile, you don’t have to worry about getting rained on!

I know, I know, it’s hard to give up driving entirely, and sometimes public transportation just doesn’t cut it. For these times, consider a car sharing service like FlexCar. Offering hybrids and other fuel-efficient, low emissions vehicles, FlexCar allows you to reserve a car only when you need it. Insurance, title, and most importantly, gas, are included in your hourly or daily rate.

Whatever you choose, it will be better than sitting in traffic watching the bikes zoom by.

Last week, on the second anniversary of the launch of GE’s ecomagination initiative, the company held a massive press conference in Los Angeles to announce its many new partnerships. Since this was a press conference, I was skeptical of the information to be provided…was this just going to be one big GE commercial love fest? And perhaps more importantly, would I drink the Kool-Aid?

The answer on both questions? Yes and no. My skepticism of the motives of corporations aside, I must admit a bias in favor of the impact that businesses (especially businesses the size of GE) can have on the climate crisis we currently face. However, companies must be able to make a “business case” for green initiatives. In other words, going green has to be profitable for the company. Remember, the three elements of the triple bottom line include profit. Yes, it would be nice if companies made changes to improve their footprint out of a concern for people and the environment, and a few companies do just that, but the business world is not designed to reward such behavior. To get a critical mass of companies on board, profit must be achievable.

Apparently, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt feels the same way. His new mantra is “green is green,” meaning that green business equals green money. This could not be more true for GE. According to their May 24th press release, “Revenues from its (ecomagination) portfolio of energy efficient and environmentally advantageous products and services surged past $12 billion in 2006, up 20% from 2005, while the order backlog rose to $50 billion.”

Wow.

Immelt goes on to say, “These extraordinary revenues and orders are the initial payoff from directly aligning our product portfolio with our customers’ needs and evolving trends, while ‘doubling-down’ on investments in leading edge technology and innovation. Ecomagination is growing beyond our expectations, evolving into a sales initiative unlike any other I’ve seen in 25 years at GE.”

Though skeptics will point to the fact that ecomagination represents a small piece of GE’s business, this growth can only be good news. A company the size of GE can have a huge impact with their investment in new technologies, as well as in spreading the word through their visibility.

Immelt announced at the press conference a series of new partnerships and investment in many divergent industries, including:

• Water desalination: slated to open in 2010, the Carlsbad Seawater Desalination Plant will draw water from the Pacific Ocean for use in San Diego County. The facility will use GE’s ZeeWeed® ultra filtration technology.
• Hydrogen energy: GE, along with BP, is forming a global alliance to develop and deploy 10 to 15 hydrogen power projects.
• Wind energy: GE Energy Financial Services will invest in its biggest wind farm to date, the 241-megawatt Sweetwater 4 facility and a sister project, both in Texas.
• Transportation: efforts here include the first hybrid locomotive with Union Pacific, and investment in A123’s work toward the next-generation battery technology for hybrid electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles.
• Lighting: Wal-Mart, the largest individual electricity user in the country, will be installing motion-activated LED lighting in its refrigerated cases. In addition to using less energy for lighting, less heat will be generated reducing the amount of energy used for refrigeration.
• Housing: RWO Acquisitions is retrofitting an old Air Force base in coastal South Carolina into a green community, featuring energy efficient homes and GE’s first energy-efficient mortgage. Homes will offer the GE SmartCommand™ Dashboard, which provides current and historical data on water and electricity usage.
• Carbon emissions offsetting: with AES Corp., GE will invest in projects to capture and destroy GHG emissions from agricultural waste, landfills, coalmines and the like. The partnership will then sell the resulting offsets.
• Entertainment: NBC Universal has launched “Get On Board,” a program to improve the environmental impact of its operations by reducing greenhouse gases, raising awareness about green issues, and stimulating change in the media and entertainment industry.

After the press conference, we had time to view examples of some of the new technologies in the exhibit hall, before returning for a discussion on sustainability with Immelt and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Though the questions posed by NBC’s Lester Holt were pretty much softballs, it was an interesting discussion. The gist? From the Governor’s point of view, in finding ways to balance environmental initiatives with economic concerns California can lead the way for the rest of the nation, including the federal government. Keys to success include giving industry enough time to meet new standards, and the realization that new technology brings new jobs.

Immelt’s answers did not waiver from his earlier message: GE is into green as a business initiative. When asked about GE’s biggest areas for growth, Immelt responded that taking these new technologies to India and China, where they are needed most, would be a coup for whoever delivers them affordably.

Both agreed that the US must provide leadership for the rest of the world by first cleaning up its own act. The US remains the world’s biggest polluter, representing just 5% of the population while being responsible for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions. The US must remedy this situation to have credibility when offering help to developing nations.

After a long day, I left the event with the sense that we’ve turned a corner. If companies like GE and Wal-Mart can make tons of money with green initiatives, while communicating the message that greening doesn’t cost money but makes money, other companies will follow their lead. This offers real hope, without the Kool-Aid.